It goes without saying that Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a terrible Paper Mario game. But could it be that, divorced of the broader context of the series, it's a good game on its own? I tried to entertain that thought. Oh, believe me, I tried. But the answer is no. No it's not.
First of all, the writing is atrocious. I'm not talking about the lack of plot— I'm talking about the writing itself. This game has approximately two jokes: Everything is made of paper, and Kamek is a hipster (apparently). Go back to the old Paper Mario games. How many jokes did they make about the world being paper? Were they subtle? Or were they people screaming about crinkled edges and not understanding basic everyday objects? I wouldn't have been surprised if they started saying things like "everypaper" instead of "everybody". (Also: mute Bowser, of course.)
More importantly, the puzzles are horrid. It's one thing not to hold the player's hand. It's another to almost require a guide to beat the game. See: Wiggler hunting. And almost every boss is a puzzle, which you don't have the information to solve (and thus may not have the stickers you need) until the battle has already started! That's bad design, plain and simple.
The soundtrack? Eh, it's okay. Some people praise its jazz leanings, but that's really only a few tracks. Most of the music is so languid as to be forgettable.
But the worst of all? The gameplay is awful! Sure, you get to move around on the field areas and jump around and stuff, and that's... okay. It's serviceable. It's nowhere near as good as a traditional Mario platformer, but that's fine. This is an RPG, right? So the real gameplay focus is in the battles. OH WAIT. The battles are terrible. All attacks are consumable, which is... possibly workable, but suspect from the beginning. But then you don't have experience points of any kind, which removes any incentive for actually battling, or sense of progression. There's barely any thinking involved in these battles, because you can find a strategy that obliterates all weak enemies and even most bosses (once you've found their weaknesses) with little effort.
So, take away the writing, the puzzles, the ho-hum soundtrack, and the gameplay, and what do you have? Nothing but graphics. This game is just a pretty piece of trash.
Not even good on its own merits
It goes without saying that Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a terrible Paper Mario game. But could it be that, divorced of the broader context of the series, it's a good game on its own? I tried to entertain that thought. Oh, believe me, I tried. But the answer is no. No it's not.
First of all, the writing is atrocious. I'm not talking about the lack of plot— I'm talking about the writing itself. This game has approximately two jokes: Everything is made of paper, and Kamek is a hipster (apparently). Go back to the old Paper Mario games. How many jokes did they make about the world being paper? Were they subtle? Or were they people screaming about crinkled edges and not understanding basic everyday objects? I wouldn't have been surprised if they started saying things like "everypaper" instead of "everybody". (Also: mute Bowser, of course.)
More importantly, the puzzles are horrid. It's one thing not to hold the player's hand. It's another to almost require a guide to beat the game. See: Wiggler hunting. And almost every boss is a puzzle, which you don't have the information to solve (and thus may not have the stickers you need) until the battle has already started! That's bad design, plain and simple.
The soundtrack? Eh, it's okay. Some people praise its jazz leanings, but that's really only a few tracks. Most of the music is so languid as to be forgettable.
But the worst of all? The gameplay is awful! Sure, you get to move around on the field areas and jump around and stuff, and that's... okay. It's serviceable. It's nowhere near as good as a traditional Mario platformer, but that's fine. This is an RPG, right? So the real gameplay focus is in the battles. OH WAIT. The battles are terrible. All attacks are consumable, which is... possibly workable, but suspect from the beginning. But then you don't have experience points of any kind, which removes any incentive for actually battling, or sense of progression. There's barely any thinking involved in these battles, because you can find a strategy that obliterates all weak enemies and even most bosses (once you've found their weaknesses) with little effort.
So, take away the writing, the puzzles, the ho-hum soundtrack, and the gameplay, and what do you have? Nothing but graphics. This game is just a pretty piece of trash.